973.7L63   Cadwallader ,  Mary  E 
B4C115a 

Abraham  Lincoln  the 
Friend  of  Man 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


http://www.archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnfrOOcadw 


,Ufe5 


Abraham  Lincoln 
The  Friend  of  Man 

His  Life  Was  Another  Drop  in  That  Vat  Where  Human 
Lives,  Like  Grapes  in  God's  Vintage,  Yield  the  Wine 
That  Strengthens  the  Spirit  of  Truth  and  Justice  in 
the   World. 

By  M.  E.  CADWALLADER 


All  the  Nation  pays  homage  to  the  memory  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  not  only  on  his  natal  day,  Feb.  12, 
but  on  every  day  of  every  year.  We  look  to  Lincoln 
as  the  preserver  of  our  Nation.  His  name  is  immortal. 
It  is  enshrined  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,  but  at 
this  particular  time  we  especially  wish  to  commemorate 
the  memory  of  Lincoln  the  Emancipator,  who  was  born 
of  humble  parents  on  the  12th  day  of  February,  1809, 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  Hodgenville,  the  county 
seat  of  LaRue  County,  in  Kentucky. 

Our  purpose  is  not  to  give  a  narrative  of  the  inci- 
dents which  may  be  found  in  the  life  history  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  and  can  be  obtained  in  any  public  library, 
but  to  bring  to  the  notice  of  our  readers  some  interest- 
ing facts  that  are  in  our  possession  about  Abraham 
Lincoln  that  are  not  generally  known. 

HIS  RELIGIOUS  BELIEF 

His  former  partner,  Hon.  W.  H.  Herndon,  said  in 
regard  to  his  religious  belief,  that  Lincoln  disagreed 
with  the  Christian  world  in  its  principles  as  well  as  in 
its  theology,  because,  in  the  first  place,  Mr.  Lincoln's 
mind  was  a  purely  logical  mind.  Secondly,  that  he  was 
purely  a  practical  man,  that  he  was  a  realist  as  opposed 
to  an  idealist. 

He  came  to  Illinois,  about  1830,  and  became  ac- 
quainted with  a  class  of  men  the  world  never  saw  the 
like  of  before  or  since.  They  were  large  men  in  body 
and  in  mind,  hard  to  whip  and  never  to  be  fooled.  It 
was  among  these  people  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  thrown, 
and  about  the  year  1834  he  chanced  to  come  across 
Volney's  "Ruins"  and  some  of  Paine's  theological 
works.  He  at  once  seized  hold  of  them  and  assimilated 
them  in  his  own  being.  Yolney  and  Paine  became  a 
part  of  Mr.  Lincoln  from  1834  to  the  end  of  his  life. 
He  even  went  so  far  as  to  write  a  small  work  on  Infi- 
delity, intending  to  have  it  published,  but  it  never  saw 
the  light  of  day.  Mr.  Lincoln  at  that  time  was  in  New 
Salem  keeping  store  for  Mr.  Samuel  Hill  at  that  place, 
and  one  day  after  the  book  was  finished,  Lincoln  read 
it  to  Mr.  Hill,  who  was  his  friend  and  who  saw  that 


Lincoln  was  a  rising  man,  and,  with  an  eve  to  the  future 
popularity  of  his  young  friend,  he  believed  that  if  the 
book  were  published  it  would  kill  Lincoln  forever  in 
the  eyes  of  his  fellow  men,  so.  snatching  it  from  Lin- 
coln's hands  when  he  was  not  expecting  it,  he  put  it 
into  an  old-fashioned  stove,  and  it  went  up  in  smoke. 
Mr.  Herndon  says  that  at  that  time  Mr.  Lincoln  drank 
deeply  of  the  works  of  Hume,  Gibbon  and  others  and 
boldly  avowed  himself  an  infidel.  Mr.  Herndon  said 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  melancholy  man,  and  at  that 
time  was  living  on  the  borderland  between  theism  and 
atheism.  In  his  happier  moments  he  would  swing  back 
to  theism  from  atheism  and  dwell  lovingly  there.  He 
was  intense  always,  and  terrible  in  his  melancholy. 
LINCOLN'S  BELIEF  IN  SPIRITUALISM 

So  much  for  what  the  Hon.  W.  H.  Herndon,  a  for- 
mer law  partner  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  said  of  the  re- 
ligious belief  of  the  late  President,  but  we  have  reason 
to  know  that  he  became  interested  in  Spiritualism,  as 
he  attended  many  seances,  and  that  he  many  times  sat 
with  Nettie  Colburn,  who  afterwards  became  the  wife 
of  William  Porter  Maynard  of  White  Plains,  N.  Y. 

It  was  our  good  fortune  to  know  Nettie  Colburn 
Maynard,  and  be  present  at  seances,  where  she  was 
the  medium,  and  through  her  lips  hear  the  voice  of  the 
martyred  President  speak  again.  W;e  cherish  in  loving 
reverence  one  statement  made  by  him  which  has  been 
engraved  and  is  now  in  the  home  of  The  Progressive 
Thinker,  inscribed  on  a  plaque  under  a  brass  bust  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  It  is  this :  "LET  THE  SWORD 
REST  IN  PEACE;  ITS  RUST  IS  PRECIOUS." 

Col.  Simon  P.  Kase,  of  Philadelphia,  was  present  at 
Mr.  Laurie's  house  in  Washington  many  times  when 
President  Lincoln  visited  Miss  Colburn.  At  one  of 
the  seances  at  the  White  House,  President  Lincoln 
asked  Miss  Colburn  to  demonstrate  "her  rare  gift," 
as  he  called  it,  and  said  it  was  perfectly  satisfactory. 
In  an  interview  with  Mr.  Maynard  some  years  ago, 
he  told  us  of  the  strange  events  that  had  taken  place 
and  of  many  incidents  connected  with  Mrs.  Colburn 
Maynard  in  her  early  days. 

3 


As  is  well  known,  for  very  many  years  Mrs.  May- 
nard  was  an  invalid  and  lying  upon  her  bed  of  pain 
tenderly  cared  for  by  her  husband  and  her  friends,  and 
she  was  often  controlled  by  the  spirit  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  On  one  occasion  when  I  was  present  I  re- 
member distinctly  that  her  face  looked  like  that  of  a 
child,  although  at  the  time  she  was  fifty-four  years  of 
age,  unable  to  move,  suffering  intensely  always,  but 
she  kept  up  a  cheerful  spirit  that  made  all  realize  that 
spirit  power  alone  could  keep  her  from  being  very 
melancholy.  On  that  occasion  Abraham  Lincoln  en- 
tranced Mrs.  Maynard  and  for  some  time  talked  of 
things  of  moment  and  gave  advice  that  has  never  been 
forgotten,  and  for  that  reason  we  are  glad  that  it  has 
fallen  to  our  lot  to  re-publish  the  book  "Was  Abraham 
Lincoln  a  Spiritualist?"  For  it  was  well  known  that 
the  simple  story  would  be  told  just  as  it  had  been 
dictated  from  her  own  lips.  It  contains  many  start- 
ling statements. 

During  a  number  of  years  father  and  mother  Hill 
were  close  friends  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Maynard,  and 
often  visited  their  beautiful  home  in  White  Plains. 
Mr.  Maynard  and  Parnie,  as  she  was  affectionately 
called,  who  had  accompanied  her  on  her  visits  to  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  were  untiring  in  their  devotion  to  the 
invalid.  I  begged  the  privilege  of  sitting  up  all  night 
with  her,  which  was  granted,  and  Mr.  Maynard  after- 
wards told  me  it  was  his  first  unbroken  night's  rest 
for  seven  years. 

The  hours  spent  there  will  never  be  forgotten. 
Young  as  I  was,  it  made  such  a  lasting  impression  that 
on  receiving  an  invitation  to  the  twenty-fifth  anniver- 
sary of  her  marriage  to  Mr.  Maynard,  I  wrote: 
"Though  I  cannot  come,  you  may  be  sure  that  I  have 
only  to  think  of  the  patient  endurance  of  your  suffer- 
ing to  realize  how  little  after  all  are  the  ordinary  trials 
of  life.  You  are  doing  more  missionary  work,  though 
confined  to  your  bed,  unable  to  move,  than  anyone  I 
know.  Your  sweet,  sunshiny  face  comes  up  before 
me;  your  words  of  counsel  and  cheer  live  in  my 
being,  while  the  utterances  of  the  arisen  friends  who 


have  spoken  through  you,  including  our  beloved 
Abraham  Lincoln,  are  engraven  on  my  heart." 

And  it  was  so.  In  the  silent  hours  of  the  night  it 
was  not  possible  to  doubt  that,  among  others,  Abraham 
Lincoln,  who  while  in  mortal  life  had  counseled  with 
others  through  her  mediumship,  had  spoken  with  me, 
and  through  all  the  years  that  have  passed  his  utter- 
ances, through  her  lips,  have  been  a  golden  memory. 

When  I  visited  the  home  of  Mr.  Maynard,  we  talked 
over  the  incidents  of  that  time.  To  him  his  arisen 
wife  is  as  an  angel  who  has  gone  from  his  home — and 
he  feels  glad  that  he  was  privileged  to  care  for  her 
during  the  years  she  was  here  on  the  mortal  plane.  He 
tenderly  spoke  of  father  Hill,  and  said :  "Never  will  I 
forget  his  goodness  to  my  dear  one." 

Among  those  who  were  close  to  Nettie  Colburn  at 
the  time  she  gave  seances  in  the  White  House,  was 
Col.  Simon  P.  Kase,  of  Philadelphia,  a  grand  old  man 
who  related  to  me  many  times  incidents  that  occurred, 
of  which  he  had  personal  knowledge.  Of  course  the 
true  story  of  Abraham  Lincoln  attending  seances  had 
a  peculiar  bearing  upon  the  most  momentous  period  in 
history,  but  it  is  based  on  truth  and  fact,  and  therefore 
will  live.  It  will  bear  thorough  examination,  regard- 
less of  doctrine,  or  sect,  or  creed.  It  is  a  page  of  veiled 
history,  but  there  are  still  living  today  those  who  will 
corroborate  the  statements  made,  as  Mrs.  Nettie  May- 
nard was  well  known  to  the  Spiritualists  years  ago 
under  her  maiden  name  of  Nettie  Colburn  as  a  trance 
speaker  at  about  the  same  time  as  Helen  Temple  Brig- 
ham  started  out  in  the  work.  Mr.  Hudson  Tuttle  vis- 
ited Mrs.  Colburn  Maynard  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Henry 
J.  Newton.  He  wrote  that  her  mediumship  was  won- 
derful and  that  every  sentence  bore  evidence  of  truth- 
fulness. Mr.  Tuttle  said  the  seance  he  had  with  her 
was  one  of  the  most  convincing  he  had  ever  had  the 
good  fortune  to  attend. 

Mr.  Maynard  is  very  anxious  that  the  people  should 
know  that  his  wife  never  claimed  that  through  her  was 
dictated  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  but  before  it 
was  signed  President  Lincoln  was  charged  with  the  ut- 


most  solemnity  not  to  abate  the  terms  of  its  issue,  nor 
delay  its  enforcement ;  he  was  assured  that  it  was  to  be 
the  crowning"  event  of  his  administration  and  his  life. 

Those  present  at  the  seance  declared  they  lost  sight 
of  the  timid  girl,  Nettie  Colburn,  in  the  majesty  of  the 
utterance,  the  strength  of  the  language  and  the  import- 
ance of  that  which  was  conveyed,  as  it  was  known  that 
strong  pressure  was  being  brought  to  bear  upon  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  to  defer  it,  but  he  was  urged  to  in  no 
wise  heed  such  counsel,  but  stand  firm  to  his  convic- 
tions and  fulfill  the  mission  for  which  he  had  been 
raised  up  by  an  overruling  Providence. 

Mr.  Daniel  Somes  asked  President  Lincoln  if  it  was 
improper  to  inquire  whether  pressure  had  been  brought 
to  bear  upon  him,  to  which  he  replied,  "Under  these 
circumstances  that  question  is  perfectly  proper,  as  we 
are  all  friends  here.  It  is  taking  all  my  nerve  and 
strength  to  withstand  such  a  pressure."  Turning  to 
Miss  Colburn,  he  said : 

"My  child,  you  possess  a  very  singular  gift,  but  that 
it  is  of  God  I  have  no  doubt.  I  thank  you  for  coming 
here  tonight.  It  is  more  important  than  perhaps  any- 
one present  can  understand." 

Mrs.  Maynard  had  one  hope — to  place  in  proper 
shape  all  the  facts  about  how  she  became  acquainted 
with  President  Lincoln — through  her  brother  having 
lost  his  pass  and  furlough — and  then  how,  as  a  young 
girl,  she  was  taken  to  the  White  House  where  many 
seances  were  held,  at  which  she  was  the  medium. 
Those  were  the  years  that  tried  the  soul  of  the  man 
who  had  made  an  almost  prophetic  utterance  in  Phila- 
delphia on  the  22nd  of  February,  1861,  when  he  was  on 
his  way  to  his  first  inauguration. 

"Throngs  of  people  had  gathered  to  see  him,"  said 
J.  H.  Barrett,  "and  he  raised  a  national  flag  to  its 
place  on  the  staff  above  Independence  Hall,  in  Phila- 
delphia, as  requested,  amid  the  cheers  of  the  thousands 
present." 

In  a  brief  speech  he  referred  with  much  emotion  to 
the  men  who  had  assembled  in  the  same  hall  in  1776, 
and  to  the  principles  there  proclaimed  on  the  fourth  of 


July,  principles  which  he  declared  it  to  be  his  purpose 
never  to  yield,  even  if  he  must  seal  his  devotion  to  them 
by  a  violent  death — alas !  his  prophetic  utterance  came 
only  too  true. 

Positive  information  had  already  been  received  at 
Washington  of  a  plot  to  assassinate  Mr.  Lincoln  at 
Baltimore.  When  this  was  communicated  to  him,  he 
was  averse  to  any  change  of  the  time  fixed  for  his 
transit  through  that  city.  On  the  earnest  representa- 
tion of  Mr.  Seward,  however,  who  sent  a  special 
messenger  to  the  President-elect  at  Harrisburg,  to  urge 
this  course,  he  left  the  latter  place  on  the  night  train  a 
few  hours  in  advance  of  that  which  he  was  expected 
to  take,  and  passing  through  Baltimore  without  recog- 
nition, arrived  safely  the  following  morning  in  Wash- 
ington, where  on  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  Abraham 
Lincoln  took  the  oath  of  office  as  President  of  the 
United  States. 

How  easy  it  is  to  be  unjust  to  the  dead,  says  a  well 
known  writer.  It  is  not  safe  to  accept  the  representa- 
tions of  churchmen  as  to  the  belief  of  prominent  per- 
sons. The  case  of  President  Lincoln  is  somewhat 
in  point.  For  many  years  he  was  an  open  and  avowed 
skeptic,  known  as  such  by  all  his  intimate  friends.  He 
afterwards  investigated  Spiritualism,  and  often  sat  in 
Spiritual  circles.  The  late  Judge  A.  S.  Miller,  for- 
merly of  Rockford,  111.,  told  Dr.  G.  W.  Brown  on 
several  occasions  he  had  sat  in  circles  with  Abraham 
Lincoln  and  knew  he  was  in  sympathy  with  its  teach- 
ings, but  now  the  church  claims  Mr.  Lincoln  as  one 
of  its  brightest  lights. 

What  Lincoln  said : 

"I  have  never  united  myself  to  any  church,  because 
I  have  found  difficulty,  in  giving  my  assent  without 
mental  reservation  to  the  long  complicated  statements 
of  the  Christian  doctrine  which  characterize  their  arti- 
cles of  belief  and  confessions  of  faith. 

"When  any  church  will  inscribe  over  its  altar,  as  its 
sole  qualification  for  membership,  the  Savior's  con- 
densed statement  of  the  substance  of  both  law  and 
Gospel,  'Thou  shall  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 


heart  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self,' that  church  will  I  join  with  all  my  heart  and  all 
my  soul." — Abraham  Lincoln. 

This  agrees  with  Herndon's  statement  that  Lincoln 
was  not  a  member  of  any  established  church. 

WHAT   TENKIN  LLOYD  JONES  SAID 
IN  1896 

Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones  preached  in  Sinai  Temple,  tak- 
ing for  his  theme,  "From  the  Log  Cabin  to  the  Presi- 
dent's Chair,"  a  study  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  After 
tracing  his  origin  and  childhood  through  their  hard- 
ships, he  said: 

"I  wish  we  might  in  some  fresh  way  discover  again 
that  the  pathos  and  the  power  of  this  figure,  which 
still,  to  many  minds,  is  permanently  grotesque,  is  based 
on  integrity.  Out  of  that  log  cabin  there  came  a  mani- 
festation of  conscience  so  significant  that  it  made  Lin- 
coln feel  kinship  with  the  meanest  and  lowest  thing  in 
nature,  and  also  relationship  with  the  highest  God  in 
heaven,  wherever  that  may  be,  and  whatever  he  is." 

Speaking  of  the  religion  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Mr. 
Jones  said : 

"His  theological  credentials  are  very  slender  and 
very  doubtful.  Lincoln  was  by  pre-eminence  Ameri- 
ca's man  of  faith.  The  very  things  he  did  not  believe 
in  witness  his  religiousness.  His  denials  were  his  de- 
votions, intellectually;  he  was  a  student  of  sacred 
things,  a  lover  of  such  books  as  help  interpret  life  and 
throw  some  light  on  the  mystery  of  being. 

READS  THE  BIBLE 

"The  Bible  was  his  childhood's  daily  food  and  the 
meagerness  of  his  home  was  lit  up,by  the  simple  rev- 
erence of  simple  hearts.  Once,  when  his  father  had 
asked  a  blessing  at  a  meal  consisting  of  warmed-over 
potatoes,  he  did  venture  to  ask  if  they  were  not  rather 
poor  blessings  to  make  much  mention  of.  This  was 
Abraham  Lincoln's  attitude  toward  the  conventional 
creeds  of  his  day  and  of  ours.  The  works  of  Thomas 
Paine,   Volney  and   Voltaire,   were  among   the   many 

8 


volumes  that  he  devoured  during  outwardly  idle  days. 

"He  wrote  out  the  argument  and  read  it  at  the  vil- 
lage store  against  supernatural  Christianity  and  in 
favor  of  the  faith  of  reason  and  of  nature.  But  the 
storekeeper  thought  it  was  sacrilegious  and  put  it  into 
the  stove. 

"Later,  in  his  Springfield  life,  the  'Vestiges  of  Crea- 
tion,' that  unique  and  until  recently  anonymous  book 
that  was  the  forerunner  of  Darwin  and  Spencer,  in- 
terested him  much,  and  the  thought  of  evolution,  the 
universal  law,  found  in  him  an  earnest  champion. 
Once  he  said,  'There  are  no  accidents  in  my  philoso- 
phy.' David  Davis,  his  intimate  co-laborer,  said,  'He 
had  faith  in  laws,  principles,  causes  and  effects,  but  no 
faith  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term,'  meaning,  of 
course,  in  the  theological  sense.  To  another  friend  he 
said,  'I  am  a  kind  of  immortalist.  I  never  could  bring 
myself  to  believe  in  eternal  punishment.' 

DISAGREES  WITH  THE  CHURCH 

"And  another  friend  says  that  on  the  doctrine  of 
depravity,  atonement  and  infallibility  of  the  written 
revelation  and  such  questions,  he  was  utterly  at  vari- 
ance with  those  usually  taught  in  the  church.  Hern- 
don,  his  law  partner,  tells  us  with  what  avidity  he 
read  the  writings  of  Charming,  and  that  the  author 
whose  views  most  nearly  represented  those  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  was  probably  Theodore  Parker,  from  whose 
writings  Lincoln  elaborated  the  memorable  phrase  of 
a  'government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for 
the  people.'  To  Carpenter,  who  painted  the  signing 
of  the  emancipation,  he  said,  T  never  joined  any 
church,  because  I  never  could  bring  myself  to  believe 
their  creeds.  When  I  can  find  a  church  based  on  the 
Golden  Rule,  that  which  will  I  gladly  join.'  And 
Nicolay,  his  private  secretary,  says  there  is  no  ground 
to  believe  that  these  opinions  were  ever  changed. 

"After  his  death  the  religious  world  found  a  great 
and  perplexing  task  on  their  hands,  that  of  trying  to 
get  this  great,  throbbing  hearted  Lincoln,  the  savior  of 
so  many  souls  to  liberty,  into  heaven  through  their 

9 


creed  doors.  They  tried  to  prove  his  religiousness  by 
making  out  that  he  thought  of  Jesus,  of  God  and  of 
the  Bible  something:  as  thev  did. 


•& 


LOVE  WAS  HIS  RELIGION 

"Let  us  rather  believe  that  he  was  religious  because 
he  had  a  God-like  love  in  his  heart,  because  he  sought 
to  be  an  embodied  righteousness,  a  truth  teller ;.  be- 
cause in  him  the  human  instincts  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury culminated ;  because  he  was  able  to  throw  aside 
ecclesiastical  and  political  trappings ;  do  without  the 
helps  and  stays  that  are  considered  necessary  to  the 
intellectual  and  moral  lives  of  most  men,  and  rise  by 
virtue  of  an  internal  force  into  the  sublimity  of  a  full 
manhood  in  his  plain  manliness,  proving  his  relation- 
ship to  all  that  is  infinite,  and  eternal. 

"We  will  find  his  religion  indicated  by  his  oft-flow- 
ing tears  for  the  suffering.  He  established  his  kinship 
with  the  Man  of  Nazareth  by  going  up  and  down  this 
world  as  he  did,  doing  good.  His  was  the  beatitudes 
which  the  elder  brother  had  pronounced  blessed.  'The 
pure  in  heart,  the  meek,  the  merciful,  the  poor  in  spirit, 
the  peacemaker,'  he  was  one  who  'hungered  after 
righteousness/  and  was,  oh,  so  sadly  persecuted  for 
truth's  sake,  and  the  reward  of  being  so  persecuted, 
which  came  to  the  one  while  nailed  to  the  cruel  cross 
on  Calvary,  came  to  the  other  on  the  wings  of  the  swift 
flying  bullet  as  he  sat  in  Ford's  Theater  in  the  city  of 
Washington. 

"If  there  is  any  glory  corner  anywhere  in  the  uni- 
verse where  the  hallelujahs  of  4,000,000  emancipated 
slaves  may  not  carry  -the  soul  of  Abraham  Lincoln  be- 
cause, forsooth,  he  had  a  head  that  worked  as  well  as 
a  heart,  when  he  was  flesh  environed,  then,  my  friends, 
we  can  do  without  that  glory  corner  ourselves,  and  if 
there  is  anywhere  a  great  white  throne  not  accessible 
to  plain  manliness,  to  the  motherly  tenderness,  the 
God-like  charity  and  sympathy  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
then  all  I  have  to  say  is  that  I  have  no  desire  to  visit 
such  a  throne  myself. 

10 


FAITH  IN  LINCOLN'S  FUTURE 
"The  heaven  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is  good  enough 
for  me.  The  hell  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is  not  too  bad 
for  me.  Ah !  there  lies  a  searching,  solemn  exaction 
in  this  confession.  His  heaven  is  only  for  those  who, 
with  bleeding  feet,  have  walked  the  rocky  road  he 
traveled,  who  have  tasted  the  Mara  waters  of  high 
service.  His  life  arraigns  our  selfishness,  rebukes  our 
cupidity,  but  it  girds  our  courage.  His  life  was  an- 
other drop  in  that  sacred  vat  where  human  lives,  like 
grapes  from  God's  vintage,  yield  the  wine  that 
strengthens  the  spirit  of  truth  and  justice  in  the  world. 
If  we  would  know  the  religion  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
let  us  save  this  flag  from  further  stains,  keep  it 
untarnished  as  an  emblem  of  love,  liberty  and  law  to 
all  nations  and  to  all  ages." 

*     *     *     * 

HONOR  TO  WHOM  HONOR  IS  DUE 

Who  saved  this  nation  ?  Was  it  the  generals  in  com- 
mand, whose  names  are  held  in  veneration  throughout 
the  land?  Yes,  but  with  the  help  of  the  privates,  whose 
names  will  never  be  known  to  fame.  All  honor  to  the 
rank  and  file,  the  brave  boys  in  blue  who  faced  toil, 
misery  and  starvation  on  the  battle  field  and  in  the 
prison  cell.  The  soldier  who  did  his  duty,  though  his 
bones  were  left  to  bleach  upon  the  battle  field,  did  as 
much  toward  his  country's  preservation  as  did  the 
bravest  general  in  command. 

Who  saved  this  nation?  We  answer,  the  mothers 
who  gave  their  sons  for  its  sake. 

Who  saved  this  nation?  We  answer,  the  wives  who 
offered  up  their  husbands  upon  the  altar  of  their 
country. 

Who  saved  this  nation?  We  answer,  the  children, 
who  were  left  orphans.  They  helped  to  pay  the  price 
of  Union. 

Who  saved  this  nation?  We  answer,  the  brave  boys 
in  blue,  who  gallantly  pressed  forward  at  their  coun- 
try's call. 

Who  saved  this  nation?     We  answer,  the  generals 

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in  command,  staunch  and  true,  who  led  the  army  to 
victory. 

Who  saved  this  nation?  We  linger  in  loving  rever- 
ence upon  the  name  than  which  no  other  holds  a  dearer 
place  in  our  hearts.  The  one  we  teach  our  children 
to  revere,  the  one  whose  life  we  would  have  them  emu- 
late— the  one  whose  life-blood  sealed  the  emancipation 
proclamation — the  one  whose  memory  is  enshrined  in 
the  heart  of  every  American  citizen. 

Lincoln — Abraham  Lincoln — with  his  brave  generals 
and  his  boys  in  blue — Lincoln  the  immortal — saved  this 
nation. 

Could  we  hear  him  speak  today  he  would  counsel  us 
to  work  for  peace,  to  work  for  arbitration,  to  work  for 
the  day  when  war  shall  be  no  more,  when  brother  shall 
no  longer  fight  against  brother.  Could  we  hear  him 
speak,  he  would  tell  us  of  the  cruelties  of  war  and  bid 
us  bend  our  energies  toward  that  day  when  mankind 
shall  be  as  brothers  and  all  dwell  together  in  unity. 
Again  we  hear  the  voice  of  Lincoln  the  immortal,  as 
he  seems  to  say:  "Let  the  sword  rest  in  peace;  its 
rust  is  precious." 

INTERESTING    INCIDENTS    NOT 
GENERALLY  KNOWN 

Mr.  James  C.  Underhill  relates  the  following  inter- 
esting incident:  *T  was  in  Springfield,  111.,  the  home 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  at  the  time  when  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  first  nominated  for  the  Presidency.  There  exist- 
ed in  Springfield  a  Republican  organization  designated 
the  Rail  Guard.  This  Rail  Guard  marched  around 
the  Capitol  Square,  each  member  carrying  upraised  on 
his  shoulder  a  rail  of  Lincoln's  own  splitting.  Thus 
they  marched,  two  by  two  in  procession,  with  the  tall, 
gaunt  figure  of  Abraham  Lincoln  following  in  the 
rear.  It  was  a  unique  spectacle,  not  to  be  forgotten 
by  the  many  onlookers." 

HOW  LINCOLN  CAME  TO  WEAR  A  BEARD 

It  is  not  generally  known  that  it  was  a  child  who 
persuaded  Abraham  Lincoln  to  wear  a  beard.     In  the 

12 


magazine,  St.  Nicholas,  we  read  that  up  to  the  time  he 
was  nominated  he  had  always  been  smooth  shaven.  A 
little  girl  in  Chautauqua  County,  New  York,  who 
greatly  admired  him,  made  up  her  mind  that  he  would 
look  better  if  he  wore  whiskers,  and  with  youthful 
directness  wrote  him  so.  He  answered  her  by  return 
mail : 

"Springfield,  111.,  Oct.  19,  1860. 
"Miss  Grace  Bedell : 

"My  dear  Little  Miss — Your  very  agreeable  letter  of 
the  15th  is  received.  I  regret  the  necessity  of  saying 
I  have  no  daughter.  I  have  three  sons,  one  seventeen, 
one  nine  and  one  seven  years  of  age.  They,  with  their 
mother,  constitute  my  whole  family.  As  to  the  whisk- 
ers, never  having  worn  any,  do  you  not  think  people 
would  call  it  a  piece  of  silly  affection  if  I  were  to  begin 
it  now? 

"Your  very  sincere  well-wisher, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

Evidently  on  second  thought  he  decided  to  follow 
her  advice.  On  his  way  to  Washington  the  train 
stopped  at  the  town  where  she  lived.  He  asked  if  she 
were  in  the  crowd  gathered  at  the  station  to  meet  him. 
Of  course  she  was,  and  willing  hands  forced  a  way  for 
her  through  the  mass  of  people.  When  she  reached  the 
car,  Mr.  Lincoln  stepped  from  the  train,  kissed  her, 
and  showed  her  that  he  had  taken  her  advice. 

THE  LAST  HOURS  OF  LINCOLN'S  MOTHER 
The  following  interesting  narrative  was  written  by 
an  intimate  friend  of  the  Lincoln  family: 

"It  was  a  Sunday  evening.  No  one  was  present  but 
the  father,  the  suffering  mother,  and  the  two  children, 
Abe  and  his  sister  Sarah.  Abe  had  already  on  many 
a  Sabbath  during  his  mother's  illness,  undertaken  her 
office  oj  reading  from  the  Scriptures  to  the  family. 
Now  he  sat  near  Mother  Nancy,  as  she  was  called,  the 
old  family  Bible  upon  his  knees,  reading  the  Gospel  in 
a  soft  but  clear  voice.  His  little  sister  knelt  beside  the 
roughly  improvised  couch  of  the  mother,  looking 
dreamily  into  her  pale  face  and  shrunken  eyes,  while 

13 


one  of  the  thin  hands  of  the  patient  woman  rested  upon 
the  daughter's  curly  head.  Father  Thomas  Lincoln 
leaned  against  the  tall  sycamore  whose  mighty  branches 
shadowed  the  log  cabin  and  the  sorrowing  little  group. 
His  broad  chest,  across  which  his  arms  were  folded, 
heaved  and  betrayed  the  feelings  of  the  husband.  He 
gazed  motionless  into  his  wife's  almost  transfigured 
countenance,  over  which  at  that  moment  the  evening 
cast  a  roseate  hue.  At  times  his  lips  moved  convul- 
sively, as  if  unable  to  repress  the  anguish  that  cramped 
his  heart.  His  tearful  eyes  expressed  the  terrible  grief 
and  solicitude  of  the  plain  but  deeply  feeling  pioneer. 
Mother  Nancy's  earthly  moments  were  numbered. 
This  could  not  be  disguised.  Thomas  Lincoln  saw  it 
by  the  momentary  light,  scarcely  perceptible  convulsions 
of  her  emaciated  body ;  but  the  change  which  had  taken 
place  during  the  last  hour  in  her  gentle,  beautified 
face ;  by  the  eyes  that  became  more  and  more  glazed, 
and  only  now  and  then  lit  up  with  an  expression  of 
love  and  anxiety  for  her  dear  ones. 

"  'Stop  reading,  Abe,'  he  murmured,  trembling  with 
apprehension,  'it  worries  your  mother.'  'No,'  breathed 
Mrs.  Lincoln  in  broken  sentences,  'it  seems  as  though 
angels  were  singing  psalms — as  though  the  entire 
glory  of  the  other  world  were  disclosed  to  me — yes, 
thus — thus  I  always  wished  to  die — the  blue  heaven 
above  me — you  at  my  side — and  God's  word  on  my 
lips.     Your  hand,  Thomas.' 

"The  husband  bent  over  his  wife  and  took  her  right 
hand,  which  she  was  unable  to  lift. 

"Abe  had  been  silent.  He  now  looked  into  his 
mother's  face,  hastily  closed  the  Bible  and  sprang  up 
from  the  log. 

"'Gracious  God!  My  mother  is  dying!'  he  stam- 
mered, and  reeled,  pale  and  trembling,  to  her  side, 
while  Sarah  uttered  a  cry  and,  falling  on  her  knees, 
buried  her  face,  over  which  the  tears  were  streaming, 
in  the  lap  of  the  dying  woman.  But  Abe  embraced  his 
mother,  and  held  her  in  his  arms  as  though,  poor  boy! 
he  could  in  that  way  stay  the  soul  of  the  so-dearly 
loved  mother. 

14 


"  'Don't  cry,'  she  whispered.  'Is  death  not  a  relief 
from  my  sufferings?  I  am  prepared.  I  feel  that  I 
shall  remain  with  you  even  when  I  am  gone.  I  shall 
pray  for  you  in  heaven — and — shall  see  you  all  again. 
Be  virtuous,  Sarah.  Remain  honest  and  brave,  my 
Abe — honor  and  love  your  father — I  can  die  content- 
ly — and  you — Thomas — ' 

"  'My  Nancy — my  wife!'  stammered  the  strong  man, 
now  thoroughly  overcome. 

"  'I  have  been  faithful  to  you,'  she  continued,  in  a 
feeble  tone,  'and  you  have  done  your  duty.  Thanks 
for  all  your  kindness  to  me.  And  now — God  be  with 
— you  all/ 

"The  noble  woman  endeavored  to  utter  a  few  more 
words  of  love,  but  they  were  lost  in  an  unintelligible 
murmur.  One  more  glance  she  cast  on  all  around  her 
and  then  her  beautiful  eyes,  formerly  so  radiant  with 
love,  became  dim,  the  lips  trembled  for  the  last  time. 
Death  had  come  to  her  like  sweet  sleep,  serene  and 
holy  transfiguration  lay  on  her  quiet  features,  a  smile 
hovered  around  her  lips.  Life  had  fled;  but  Nancy 
Lincoln  resembled  a  softly  sleeping  one,  over  whom  the 
last  rays  of  the  sun  shed  their  rosy  hue.  The  children 
knelt  weeping  at  the  feet  of  the  lifeless  body.  Thomas 
Lincoln  still  retained  the  now  cold  hand  within  his 
own. 

"  'Let  us  pray,  children/  he  muttered  in  deepest 
agony,  'that  God  may  not  forsake  us  in  the  hour  of  our 
greatest  trial  and  need — you  have  no  mother  now/  " 

Born  and  reared  in  deep  poverty — such  was  the  ex- 
perience of  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  rose  to  such  heights 
of  fame  that  his  history  is  now  printed  in  every  known 
language.  Not  alone  is  he  honored  in  his  own  country, 
but  in  every  country  the  sun  shines  upon.  Though 
born  in  Kentucky,  he  lived  some  years  in  Indiana,  but 
Illinois  claims  him  as  her  most  illustrious  son. 

LINCOLN  THE  HERO  OF  THE  NATION 

The  great  International  Panama-Pacific  Exposition 
had  on  exposition  in  the  Lincoln  Memorial  room  of 
the  Illinois  building  the  famous  collection  of  Lincoln. 

15 


I  spent  many  hours  there  studying  his  letters,  which 
had  been  preserved — the  many  relics  which  had  been 
loaned  for  the  occasion — and  as  I  gazed  on  the  books 
in  every  known  language  almost,  all  telling  the  tale  of 
the  one  whose  name  rises  unbidden  to  our  lips  when 
we  speak  of  our  own  country  and  the  preservation  of 
our  Union,  I  felt  glad  to  know  that  even  at  this  day 
honor  was  being  done  to  the  illustrious  Lincoln. 

Has  the  soul  of  this  great  man  soared  away  to 
heights  immortal,  while  the  ship  of  state  he  guided 
safely  into  calm  waters  is  in  the  midst  of  such  perilous 
times?  Nay,  not  so.  Lincoln  is  not  asleep — but  gifted 
with  clearer  vision  than  ever  before ;  he  is  today  as 
interested  as  any  of  us  in  our  nation's  welfare. 

Lincoln's  body  has  crumbled  to  dust,  but  his  spirit 
still  inspires  us  to  noble  deeds  of  true  patriotism. 

Every  one  who  possibly  can  should  visit  Springfield, 
Illinois,  and  see  the  Lincoln  Memorials.  They  will* 
see  how  humble  the  surroundings  of  the  early  birth 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  studied  his  lessons  by  the 
fire-light  in  the  log  cabin,  and  practiced  writing  on 
the  back  of  a  shovel.  They  will  see  relics  priceless  in 
value — letters  written  by  his  own  hand  during  the 
perilous  times  of  the  civil  war,  as  well  as  many  por- 
traits taken  at  different  stages  of  his  career. 

No  one  can  visit  this  wonderful  collection  without 
realizing  the  inspiration  that  came  from  his  devotion 
to  principles.  Volumes  could  be  written,  monuments 
may  be  erected,  eulogies  prepared  and  delivered,  but 
even  then  the  debt  of  gratitude  we  owe  cannot  be  re- 
paid. 


(Copyright   1926.     By  M.   E.   Cadwallader) 


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